There are several local Scottish legends associated with Æbbe.
However, little of historical value is known about her and her
existence has been brought into doubt by some historians.

The most often recounted legend is of Æbbe the Younger and her
nuns mutilating themselves in the attempt to preserve their
chastity from a pillaging Viking horde. There is no contemporary record of
this event happening. The first documentary evidence of this attack
dates from the 14th century writings of Matthew Paris where he gives the year of
the attack as 870. However, it is believed that the monastery at Coldingham had by then
been abandoned for nearly 200 years, and historians have been
unable to identify any raider on the coast of south-east Scotland
for that year. The legend may be the origin of the phrase 'cutting off the nose
to spite the face'.

It may be that Paris confused the better known Æbbe the Elder with her pupil, Saint Ætheldreda.
Etheldreda, after graduating from Æbbe's tutelage, founded a religious site at
Ely.
It is recorded that, in 870, the Vikings active in East Anglia sacked
Ætheldreda's foundation. Thus a second Abbess Æbbe has been
erroneously created to explain the fact that the attack happen
nearly 200 years after the death of Æbbe the Elder.